Tag Archives: Dutch

P is for Pella, Iowa my hometown for the past decade. It is an amazing, beautiful, quaint, community and I never planned nor imagined myself living here. I have come to fully appreciate all that is special and absolutely unique … Continue reading →

You will eat the fruit of your labor; Psalm 128:1-2a (NIV) This morning as I went to the front door to gather the newspaper off the front porch, I was hit by a sudden wave of nostalgia. The simple joy of gathering … Continue reading →

Then Boaz asked his foreman, “Who is that young woman over there? Who does she belong to?” And the foreman replied, “She is the young woman from Moab who came back with Naomi. She asked me this morning if she … Continue reading →

Chapter-a-Day Psalm 55 Morning, noon, and night I cry out in my distress, and the Lord hears my voice. Psalm 55:17 (NLT) “Coffee time” is a long held tradition in the Dutch culture which is my heritage. When I was a kid, … Continue reading →

Paul lived and worked with them, for they were tentmakers just as he was. Acts 18:3 (NLT) I love the fact that Paul did what he had to do in order to fulfill the task God gave him. Not willing to … Continue reading →

Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! Proverbs 6:6 (NLT) I often tell the story of my Grandpa Vander Well. A life-long educator, when he hit mandatory retirement from teaching he took … Continue reading →

When I started blogging many years ago, I learned to set up Google alerts which would notify me if anyone mentioned my name on the web. Since people regularly spell my name incorrectly, I set up alerts for both “Tom Vander … Continue reading →